Keeping an Open Heart in Troubled Times

“Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep.” (Romans 12: 15) This verse is from a section in Romans that describes the “marks of a true Christian.” It is part of a section of Romans that proscribes how to be “in harmony” with others. As our world becomes entrenched in war after war, atrocity after atrocity, corruption and mistrust, these verses may seem impossible to follow. But consider how peaceful our world would be if every person had someone who was empathetically there with them, in joy and in sorrow. How different would our world become if each of us took it upon ourselves to find someone in need of empathic companionship and walked along their journey of life for awhile? Just imagine what a wonderful world it could be!

Walking alongside someone with love and showing your care by rejoicing or crying with them has the potential to change their whole lives! There are people in the world with no one to share their joys and their sorrows. As a result they may become hardened, hopeless, angry, and depressed. The next step in the downward spiral is often violence, on others or on themselves. And the spiraling of violence can have a traumatizing effect that ripples around the world.

Jesus is calling us to change the world by being open hearts in troubling times for one another. We are to answer the call to trust, love, and respect each other; to be the presence of Christ here on earth as much as we are able. We are NOT to conform to the hate and distrust in this world, but to show the transformative power of love and hope in the midst of darkness and evil.  A caring gesture is contagious and it can ripple around the world and multiply the love.

I just completed a Princeton seminar entitled: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Trauma. One of the readings included a paper by our professor, Dr. Deborah Hunsinger, entitled: “Keeping an Open Heart in Troubled Times: Self-empathy as a Christian Spiritual Practice.”  In this paper she describes ways to prepare our hearts and minds when we reach out to others with compassion. When we openly listen and feel deeply the pain of the other, we take some of the trauma onto ourselves. As a result it can take a toll on us as care-givers while helping to heal the one who shares their painful experience. To deal with this effect of “weeping with those who weep” Hunsinger suggests remembering that all compassion arises out of God’s love for the world and all therein. To remain in balance we must stay in touch with God about our own needs while being empathic towards the other.  Staying connected to this transcendent source of compassion (God) enables us to keep our hearts open in troubled times. 

I appreciate Dr. Hunsinger’s inspiration to practice self-empathy because without it, those who compassionately enter into the pain of another can be dragged down into a pit of despair. By taking on the burdens of another, we may lose hope for the world and distrust God’s promises. If we nurture ourselves by being aware of how the empathy towards another is affecting our own state of mind and spirit, then we can seek strength for ourselves allowing us to be instruments of peace.

Jesus demonstrated an awareness of his needs by going away regularly to pray, to reconnect with his Creator, sustainer, loving-parent God. So may you stay connected through prayer to the source of our strength and love as you “rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep”.

Look at the Read the Spirit website!

Read the Spirit is a wonderful interfaith website. A portion of the article below has been published there along with lots of great information about the Haiti recovery work others are doing....

Why I am inspired to go to Haiti on a medical mission trip…..

(I was asked by another blog to write about why I am inspired to go to Haiti. Here is my article.)

Once I held little scrawny Alberto in my arms, I could never forget him. He was a ten month old baby boy wearing just a raggedy red t-shirt. I was in love the minute he smiled up at me with his big brown eyes. After his brother let me hold him for about 30 minutes, Alberto tried to hold onto my neck when it was time for us to depart. It broke my heart when he kept reaching for me as his brother carried him home while my team returned to our transportation to take us to our mission team housing at the end of that first day. 

I met little Alberto in a bateye called Algodon in the Dominican Republic while on a mission trip with the Foundation for Peace. (See: www.foundationforpeace.org) Our team came from the US to work in partnership with their local church, and to build a clean water system for the whole community. The bateyes are a village of shacks created to house the Haitian migrant workers who are willing to work in the Dominican Republic sugar cane plantations. There are rats and snakes in these sugar cane fields and the work is extremely difficult for very low pay.

Alberto was being cared for by his six year old brother because his parents worked in the sugar cane field from sunrise to sunset. Most of the workers we met had no gloves or shoes, so they suffered much while doing this type of slave-like labor cutting down sugar cane by hand with machetes.

After a week of working together with their local church and making many friends the water was flowing through the filtering system. There was great celebration when there was clean water for all. These people had been barely surviving on the stagnant water in the irrigation canals. Now, instead of water that was brown and green with many contaminants, they had clean pure tasting water. The people told us that first day that they didn’t know water could look so clear!

I fell in love with little Alberto and his family and friends that week a few years ago. I continue to feel the nudging of the Holy Spirit to seek more ways to share the blessings and talents I have received during my comfortable life in the US.

We are all members of one global family and I look forward to meeting more of my global family in Haiti. I will be traveling with student nurses from the University of Pennsylvania under the leadership of their professor, Carrie Steele. I offered to help shepherd this group of student nurses as they work in a health clinic providing free healthcare to new mothers and babies in a town called Fond Parisien outside of Port au Prince. I am a psychiatric nurse therapist and a Presbyterian pastor so I will help to guide the students and provide healthcare teaching and pastoral counseling. A friend from church (see www.pcmorristown.org), Susan Perry, a Yoga Master, has offered to join us to teach Yoga.  She plans to teach the new Haitian mothers simple Yoga techniques to benefit their health and will help the student nurses learn Yoga to de-stress after working all day in the clinic. Please keep us all in your prayers! Our team will be in Haiti from May 3-10^th. 

Washing One Another's Feet

"Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you." (John 13: 14-15)

When Christ washed the feet of his disciples, he was demonstrating how they were to go to the world and care for others. The humble giving of footwashing showed great love.    
"In the story of the footwashing, then, we have the most profound revelation of the heart of God apart from the crucifixion itself. We also learn more of the relation between Jesus and his disciples, the relation of the disciples with one another in humble service and the mission of the disciples to the world." (http://www.biblegateway.com/resources/commentaries/IVP-NT/John/Jesus-Washes-Disciples-Feet)

Where do you wash other's feet? That may sound disgusting, but it was much more disgusting when the people in Jesus's time wore sandals and walked many days without washing. My son is a Podiatrist. Part of his education included caring for the feet of the homeless in a free foot clinic in Harlem every week. It was such an important humbling experience for all the students at the New York College of Podiatric Medicine to begin caring for the "least of these." At first it was difficult for my son and most all the students to deal with the stench, gangrenous injuries, and disease in those neglected feet. But after getting past the first few times of working in this clinic, it became one of his favorite training experiences because he developed relationships with the people who came on a regular basis. Despite the horrible condition of their feet, all the students learned to treat each person (who happened to be homeless for a variety of reasons), with respect and good healthcare.

God wants each of us to do likewise in whatever form of service we are able. Maybe you can wash another's feet by walking alongside them to the doctor when they are afraid of the diagnosis. Maybe the washing you can give is through providing a listening presence to a hurt soul who is desperately alone but is ashamed to ask for company. Maybe you can wash another's feet by bringing them to church when they are afraid to walk in alone. Pray for God to show you how to wash another's feet and reach out beyond your comfort zone to provide God's love through your humble service. Our Outreach Committee has many great ideas for helping “the least of these” in our world. See our Outreach section of our website at: http://www.pcmorristown.org
The gift of yourself will bring blessings not just to the receiver, but also to the humble giver. For God so loved the world!

A Lenten River Prayer by Jonathan Larson

O Ancient of Days,

We come from rivers that are not rivers,

from fountains that do not sing of life,

from barren springs where promise has failed,

from stony wells that mock the dream of Jubilee.

But from the abundance of your life,

roll down upon us now the tide of your sweet Spirit,

            that flagging faith be refreshed,

            that stubborn wounds be cleansed and healed,

            that brokenness be drenched with wholeness,

            that what is defiled and disgraced

                        be washed and relieved.

From the headwaters of your mercy and goodness,

            flood the flatlands of resignation,

            carry away what is trifling, jaded, and vain,

            fill the cisterns provided to slake our thirst,

            fill us with yearning to mirror your lavish giving,

            brim the hearts of your people with tears of compassion

                        and the laughter of joyful service.

From heaven's watershed of grace and salvation,

            cascade upon us the fullness of your kingdom;

            let its thunder possess our whole hearts,

            let its simplicity be our peace,

            let its quaking be our only strength.

River of healing, water of life,

            grant this we beg you;

            for love of your only Son we pray.  Amen.
(photo credit: http://www.epa.gov/bioiweb1/html/photos_rivers.html)

Forty Days on a Life-Giving Journey

           "For forty wilderness days and nights he was tested by Satan. Wild animals were his companions, and angels took care of him." (Mark 1:13, The Message) 

     Jesus prepared for his ministry by going into the desert for forty days. Our Lenten season in the Presbyterian church is a 40 day period of preparation for Easter. Instead of "giving up" or fasting during Lent, Presbyterians typically "add" something to their normal days to enhance their faith journeys. This year we have a Lenten Devotional that adds more scripture reading and prayers. Although the daily passages and prayers are short, they are meaningful and easy to incorporate into a morning or evening prayer time. Lenten Devotional                                                                       

     My friend, Tracey, has decided to use our Lenten devotional as a daily reminder to do a "life-giving" act each day. She plans to write what she did each day in the devotional to show the completion of this act. One day it might be to simply write a "Thank You" note to a friend. The next day it might be to take some food to a homebound person, or a lonely friend out to lunch. Tracey is inviting her parents to join her so they can compare notes with one another about their life-giving journeys through Lent. 

                 

     Our church has a tradition of offering a Labyrinth prayer walk for anyone in our church and community to experience during Holy Week. The original purpose for the labyrinth was to offer a way for those who could not make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to be able to imagine going to Jerusalem by way of the Labyrinth walk. It has become quite a popular way to pray and walk at the same time. The labyrinth is an ancient symbol that relates to wholeness.                                                                                            

     When you walk the labyrinth, you embark on a spiritual journey, allowing space for God amid the usually crammed confines of our minds. The labyrinth is not a maze, which is designed to confuse and challenge, but a circuitous path with no wrong turns or blind alleys. If you continue on the path, you inevitably come to the center where your journey has led you. Click on: Labyrinth Prayer Walk                

     I believe one of the reasons the ancient Labyrinth walks have survived thousands of years is due to the hope they embody. When you walk towards the center and walk out again, you walk with hope for wholeness in your soul. May your Lenten Season be filled with sacred hope that culminates in a blessed Holy Week and Easter. And may you find lfe-giving ways to spread hope in Christ to others. This poem by Jan Richardson gives me good hope and comfort especially needed this busy time of year! 

Hope nonetheless.
Hope despite.
Hope regardless.
Hope still.

Hope where we had ceased to hope.
Hope amid what threatens hope.
Hope with those who feed our hope.
Hope beyond what we had hoped.

Hope that draws us past our limits.
Hope that defies expectations.
Hope that questions what we have known.
Hope that makes a way where there is none.

Hope that takes us past our fear.
Hope that calls us into life.
Hope that holds us beyond death.
Hope that blesses those to come.

Celtic Musical Call to Peace for the Masses